Obama praises ‘strengthening ties’ between US and Vietnam during landmark visit

Vietnamese enthusiastically welcome US President Barack Obama and hope for stronger diplomatic and economic ties, and the lifting of an arms embargo.

US President Barack Obama walks with his Vietnamese counterpart Tran Dai Quang as they review a guard of honour during a welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi on May 23, 2016.-- PHOTO: AFP

A woman stands next to a poster showing US President Barack Obama outside a tailor shop in Hanoi on May 22, 2016. -- PHOTO: EPA

US President Barack Obama receives flowers as he arrives at Noibai International Airport in Hanoi on May 22, 2016. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

HANOI (AFP, REUTERS) - US President Barack Obama praised “strengthening ties” between the United States and Vietnam at the start of a landmark visit on Monday (May 23), as the former wartime foes deepen trade links and share concerns over Chinese actions in disputed seas.

“We come here as a symbol of the strengthening ties we have made over the last several decades,” Mr Obama told his counterpart President Tran Dai Quang in Hanoi.

“Across the board, what we have seen is increased cooperation for the benefit of both of our people,” he said.

Mr Obama began his first visit to Vietnam on Monday, a trip aimed at sealing a partnership with America's former enemy and part of his strategic "rebalance" towards Asia to counter China's growing strength in the region.

Four decades after a war that deeply divided opinion in America, Mr Obama will press for stronger defence and economic ties with the country's communist rulers but prod them too on human rights, aides say.

The president's three-day stay is unusually long for one country, underscoring the importance he places on expanding relations with Hanoi. Ahead of the visit, pressure mounted on him to roll back an arms embargo, one of the last vestiges of wartime animosity.

Such a step would anger Beijing, which resents US efforts to forge stronger military bonds with its neighbours amid rising tensions in the disputed South China Sea.

US officials were finalising a decision on the issue as Mr Obama landed in Hanoi late on Sunday.

Most top aides favour at least easing the ban, arguing that Washington needs to demonstrate tangible support for Hanoi's efforts to build its deterrent against China, people familiar with the discussions said.

Mr Obama's visit follows what the Pentagon called an "unsafe"intercept last week by Chinese fighter jets of a US military reconnaissance plane over the South China Sea.

"Nobody has any illusions," said Mr Evan Medeiros, Mr Obama's former top Asia adviser. "This trip sends important signals to China about US activism in the region and growing US concern about Chinese behaviour."

But Vietnam's human rights record is a sticking point.

Officials are mindful of misgivings back in Washington about losing leverage for securing political reforms from a government that rights advocates say is among the world's most repressive.

Any move to revoke the ban - something Vietnam has long sought - would make clear that every weapons sale would be on a case-by-case basis, contingent on human rights considerations, officials said.

Mr Obama, who has proven himself a pragmatist in balancing security and human rights, appeared to be trying to keep the pressure on Hanoi for concessions up to the last minute.

He plans to meet dissidents during his trip.

But officials are looking not only for signs that the Vietnamese are taking rights concerns seriously. They want a clear commitment to expanded military cooperation, including more US access to ports such as the strategic Cam Ranh Bay and participation in joint and regional naval exercises.

Mr Obama, the third US president to visit Vietnam since diplomatic relations were restored in 1995, has made closer diplomatic and military cooperation with countries across the Asia-Pacific a centerpiece of his foreign policy.

REMINDERS OF THE PAST

There has been much excitement about Mr Obama's visit in a country with a young population firmly behind closer US ties and resentful of their economic dependence on neighbour China. State media has detailed the scale of the task of hosting Mr Obama along with his delegation, security detail and culinary needs.

As a sign of the capitalism that now thrives in Vietnam, some opportunistic businesses used pictures of a smiling Obama to sell their products.

Mr Ngo Minh Kien's tailor shop in the Old Quarter of Hanoi displayed an image of the US president in a crisp suit.

"I want the US to lift the arms embargo on Vietnam and that would help us to strengthen our security," he said.

Bilateral trade has swelled 10-fold over the past two decades to around US$45 billion (S$62 billion) , and Vietnam is now South-east Asia's biggest exporter to the United States.

Vietnam's manufacturing-led economy is growing at one of Asia's fastest rates, prompting US firms such as Intel , Microsoft, Ford Motors and General Electric to expand their operations here.

But even as the two sides look forward, there will be reminders of the past.

Mr Obama is accompanied by Secretary of State John Kerry, who after a tour in Vietnam as a young Navy officer became a protester against the war, which killed hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese and 58,000 U.S. troops.

In the commercial hub, Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, Mr Obama will meet entrepreneurs and tout a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal he has championed, in which Vietnam would be the biggest beneficiary of the 12 members.

But the name of the city, the capital of the now-defunct South Vietnam, evokes searing images for many Americans of a final frantic US airlift in 1975.

And for some among the Vietnam old guard, there are still suspicions that the US endgame is to undermine their one-party rule. Mr Obama arrived hours after voting ended in the country's five-yearly parliamentary election, in which nearly all the candidates were Communist Party members.

The Straits Times

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